Optical Navigation Method and Error Analysis for the Descending Landing Phase in Planetary Exploration

• Published in: Aerospace Vol. 9; no. 9; p. 496
• Main Authors: Mu, Rongjun, Wu, Peng, Deng, Yanpeng, Song, Haofan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.09.2022
• Subjects: Algorithms; Coordinate transformations; crater detection algorithm; Craters; Discovery and exploration; Electronics in navigation; Error analysis; Error detection; Lie groups; lunar exploration; Lunar landing; Lunar probes; Mathematical models; Methods; Monte Carlo method; Monte Carlo simulation; Moon; Navigation systems; optical navigation; Outer space; Planetary probes; Real time; Sensors; Space exploration; spatial position distribution; torus; Toruses
• ISSN: 2226-4310; 2226-4310
• DOI: 10.3390/aerospace9090496

To solve the problem of high-precision optical navigation for the descent landing of lunar and planetary probes, an optical navigation method based on the spatial position distribution model is proposed. The method is based on crater detection, and an imaging cosine equivalent mathematical model based on the correspondence of crater objects is constructed. The geometric distribution of the probe spatial position is described to form an Abelian Lie group spatial torus to achieve absolute positioning for parametric optical navigation, Finally, the effect of the measurement error of crater detection on the positioning and attitude of the optical navigation system is discussed, with a fitted ellipse used as a typical analysis object. The effects of different crater distribution configurations and different detection errors on the performance of the proposed optical navigation algorithm are analyzed. The results of Monte Carlo simulation experiments showed that the algorithm proposed in this paper had the advantages of high stability, high accuracy, and good real-time performance, compared with existing methods.